Protestantism in the Waldensian Valleys - James Aitken Wylie

first of these post-Reformation churches set up;
others speedily followed in the other valleys;
pastors were multiplied; crowds flocked to their
preaching, and not a few came from the plains of
Piedmont, and from remote parts of their valleys,
to drink of these living waters again flowing in
their land.
Yet another token did this old Church give of
the vigorous life that was now flowing in her veins.
This was a translation of the Scriptures into the
French tongue. At the synod, the resolution was
taken to translate and print both the Old and New
Testaments, and, as this was to be done at the sole
charge of the Vaudois, it was considered as them
gift to the Churches of the Reformation. A most
appropriate and noble gift! That Book which the
Waldenses had received from the primitive
Church–which their fathers had preserved with
their blood–which their barbes had laboriously
transcribed and circulated–they now put into the
hands of the Reformers, constituting them along
with themselves the custodians of this the ark of
the world's hopes. Robert Olivetan, a near relative
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